1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to the manufacture of printed plastic card products, including laminated credit cards, debit cards, ATM cards and the like. More specifically, the invention relates to a system for mass producing printed plastic cards while maintaining control of the plastic card sheet stock used in the production thereof to ensure that only correct card stock corresponding to applicable job specifications is used. Still more particularly, the invention concerns a printed plastic card job control system that prevents plastic card production using unauthorized sheets of plastic card stock, but which permits such production under limited circumstances by authorized personnel.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Printed plastic cards used for financial and other purposes are becoming increasingly prevalent. Many individuals, for example, have come to rely on credit cards as an indispensable alternative to cash currency. Banks and other lending institutions issue millions of credit cards annually just to keep up with the demand for such products. A consequence of such demand is that card manufacturers, if they are to remain competitive, must have the capability of mass producing printed plastic card products as cheaply and efficiently as possible while maintaining high quality standards. Quality assurance means sustaining a high production output level across a product line containing a diverse assortment of printed plastic cards without error.
Credit cards vary widely by type (e.g. VISA.TM., MASTERCARD.TM., AMERICAN EXPRESS.TM., etc.) and issuing entity (e.g. Chase Manhattan Bank.TM., Chemical Bank.TM., United Airlines.TM., etc.). Such cards come in a variety of color schemes and are often embellished with stylized images that add to their consumer appeal. For a card manufacturer producing multiple runs of such cards in a continuous manufacturing process, it is essential that the correct card stock be used for the correct print job in accordance with the designated card type, issuing entity, and color scheme/image pattern. A bank customer ordering tens of thousands of credit cards at a time cannot tolerate cards that have been mixed with cards from other jobs. They will reject the shipment and demand that the job be rerun, all at great expense to the manufacturer.
Conventional manufacturing methods lack adequate safeguards to ensure that an erroneous mixing of card stock does not occur. In a typical printed plastic card manufacturing facility, sheets of raw plastic sheet stock are sized to accommodate a predetermined number of cards (e.g. seventy-two) arranged in a matrix of predetermined size (e.g. six columns by twelve rows). The sheet stock is first placed in a printing press where it is printed with identical image patterns corresponding to one face of the cards to be produced. A similar piece of sheet stock is then printed with image patterns corresponding to the opposite face of the cards to be produced. The two pieces of sheet stock are bonded back-to-back to form a two-ply printed sheet. This printed sheet is then laminated and placed in a cutting apparatus that cuts the sheet into individual cards. Following cutting, the cards are arranged together and boxed for shipment to the customer.
A problem arises if, following the lamination process, a sheet printed for one job is placed in the cutting apparatus in lieu of a sheet printed for another job. This can happen in a variety of ways. For example, a printed sheet from a previous job might be left in the cutting apparatus and used at the commencement of a new job. This might happen if a low priority job is interrupted so that a higher priority job can be completed first. Under such circumstances, the cutting apparatus operator might lose track of which printed sheets are loaded in the cutting apparatus for use on a given job. The result could be a production run of tens of thousands of correct cards that contains a small number of incorrect cards.
Accordingly, there is an evident need for an automated system for ensuring that only card stock printed according to a predetermined job specification will be used for a particular job, and no other. What is required is an apparatus and method for accomplishing this objective in a low cost manner using existing printing and cutting equipment, yet which will affirmatively and consistently prevent the production of any plastic laminated card product that does not conform to a predetermined job specification. An important additional requirement is that the system be flexible enough to permit selected nonconforming sheets to be cut for test purposes, or if the sheet specification for a given job must be overridden in some way during production.